Mugabe 'cleanup' disaster denounced by former secret police chief

Even one of Robert Mugabe's closest allies has denounced the sickening demolition of homes in the capital Harare that has left anywhere from 200,000 to 400,000 people homeless. Mugabe said the operation was intended to drive out criminals, though clearly such a plan should start at the presidential mansion.

Former MP Pearson Mbalekwa denounced the operation. He derided assertions that the demolition was well-planned: 'If there was a plan, we wouldn't have people sleeping under trees or next to rivers,' he said. 'It puzzles me and it puzzles all sane people.'

What makes Mbalekwa's criticism particularly stinging is that he was once the head of Mugabe's secret police. He was also a member of the central committee of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, until resigning in disgust last week.

Mbalekwa said that neither the central committee nor MPs were consulted until the crackdown had already begun.

Sure, the creation of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people has been condemned by teachers, doctors, church groups, the UN and the opposition. But when even the former secret police chief for a ruthless autocrat denounces your actions as 'callous,' then you know things are bad.


Update: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized African leaders for largely refusing to speak on the Zimbabwe disaster and other crises. He noted that self-inflicted domestic problems in one country can easily contaminate a whole region. 'Nobody invests in a bad neighbourhood and if you have just one or two countries behaving that way, that hurts everybody,' the secretary-general pointed out. This was after Zimbabwe's two most prominent Catholic archbishops and the country's doctors' association attacked the 'cleanup' operation.